


Flower Eater

by Vitanitas



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, F/F, Gen, Guilt, Kinda, Post Miracle Queen, Unrequited Love, slight body horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:46:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23415508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vitanitas/pseuds/Vitanitas
Summary: Post Miracle Queen, Chloe is just trying to go about her day to day. She feels no regret for what she did, and she doesn't care what Ladybug thinks of her. Or Pollen. She takes whatever utterly ridiculous feelings she has and stamps them down with all of her might. She is the daughter of Audrey Bougerois and she has an image to uphold.But when strange changes start happening to her, she has no one to turn to but the hero she betrayed
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Chloé Bourgeois, Chloé Bourgeois & Pollen, Chloé Bourgeois/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Unrequited - Relationship
Comments: 18
Kudos: 91





	1. Chapter 1

Sometimes, Chloe finds her mind wondering. School can be so boring, so annoying, and honestly such a waste of time, can you blame her? She can’t help it if she starts making lists of clothes she wants to buy, or if Sabrina wants to come shopping with her after class. Sometimes she doodles stripes and polka dots in her notebook. Sometimes she thinks about her Mother’s helicopter getting ready for takeoff without her. Other times her mind wanders over things she's said. How should she sound? What cadence and sharp words is she supposed to use in front of the hotel workers? Her classmates? Sabrina?

She’ll catch a glimpse of blue sky and then she remembers how easy it had been to leap across that very sky. Yellow and black stripes contrasting beautifully with that clear unending blue.  
She thinks about Pollen. When they first met, her eyes were the first thing Chloe noticed. Pollen’s eyes were large and cute, all blue, black, and gold. For such a strange, inhuman creature, those eyes held so much emotion and light. And disappointment. 

She thinks about ladybug.

"Chloe watch out!"

She has just enough time to put her hands up but misjudges the distance and the ball ends up smashing into the fingers of her right hand with an audible smack. Chloe bites back a curse as she brings her throbbing hand to her chest protectively.

"What the hell Dupain-Cheng?" Chloe glares at Marinette on the other side of the volleyball net. Chloe has to blink away tears. That hurt!!

"I'm sorry!” Marinette panics with her usually spazziness. Chloe knows it was an accident, Marinette isn’t violent or cruel on purpose. Not that it matters. “I thought you were ready!"

"Obviously not!" Chloe stomps her foot. She looks at her hand. It doesn't look broken, but it's red and throbbing; her freshly manicured nails are cracked and broken.

"This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!" The anger at not just the pain, but the destroyed manicure she was hoping would be good enough for her mother's magazine was ruined. "How dare-"

"Okay Chloe, take it easy," their PE teacher interrupts her, holding her back from stomping over to Marinette. "Head to the nurse’s office with Sabrina."

Chloe gives one last glare at Marinette and allows Sabrina to lead her away. Sabrina, of course, is fussing over her a great deal. Chloe should probably make a bigger deal about this, but honestly, her hand hurts so bad and getting out of PE for the day is pretty sweet.

“Madame, Chloe hurt her hand!” Sabrina practically kicks down the door to the nurse's office. It warms Chloe to know Sabrina would kick down a door for her.

“And my nails are absolutely ruined!” Chloe adds in helpfully.

The nurse, with a slight roll of her eyes, guides the two into her office and sits Chloe down in a chair. She gently inspects Chloe's injured hand and hums something about it not looking too bad. “I’ll need you to ice your fingers for a few minutes, and then we’ll put a light bandage around them.”

Chloe presses the ice against her fingers and hisses at the pain, they definitely look more swollen than a few minutes ago. “Utterly ridiculous…” she mutters as the nurse leaves to go find some bandages. Chloe fidgets with the ice, her eyes flitting around the nurse’s office. The scent of aseptic and the bright white walls amplify her irritation. She hates hospitals. The nurse returns and starts winding the bandage around her fingers. The action causes pain to shoot up into her arm though and makes her even more pissed off.

“Utterly ridiculous! Can you not even do your job?” Chloe rips her hand away from the nurse and glares at her, “My daddy will hear about this!” 

“I’m sorry Miss Bourgeois, but-”

“Just hurry up!”

The nurse's mouth snaps into a grim line, and her eyes narrow down at Chloe. She finishes up, the bandage noticeably looser than before. She quickly gathers up her tools and places them on the counter before leaving the room without a word.

“Chloe…” Sabrina starts but is interrupted by the sound of curtains being moved.

“Oh dear Chloe, should you have done that?” Lila asks from where she sits on one of the beds lining the nurse's office.

Chloe narrows her eyes at her. Chloe isn’t as stupid as the rest of the school is. It’s clear as day that Lila is not who she appears to be. Her recent photoshoot with Adrien has only raised her suspicions evermore. Gabriel Agreste wouldn’t even let Chole, the daughter of Paris top fashionista, model in one of Adrian’s shoots. Lila obviously couldn’t be trusted. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“What are you doing here? Are you okay?” Sabrina asks and her voice soft with concern. Sabrina, of course, was not as discerning as Chole.

“Oh, my tinnitus was giving me a headache so the nurse kindly let me rest here during gym class. But Chloe,” Lilas’s face falls into a mask of concern. “You really should be careful with how you treat people. After all your condition...”

That throws Chloe for a moment. “What the heck are you talking about? I don’t have a condition. I can speak to people however I like, Lila.”

“Well of course,” Lila soothes, looking sheepish, “you can speak as you like it's just… you do have a tendency for creating akumas. Akumas who then go around attacking people. And especially you!”

The blood in her veins turns to ice. “That's not true… It’s not my fault people turn into akumas. People are just weak-willed and can’t take criticism!”

“Yeah!” Sabrina backs her up. “Besides its hawkmoth who turns people into akumas! Chloe is innocent!” Chloe’s heart sinks at Sabrina’s full faith in her, but she brushes it off. It’s better if she doesn’t know about Miracle Queen.

“Well obviously, it isn’t really Chloe’s fault,” Lila soothes, “It’s just… you must feel so pressured all the time. You probably feel like you have to walk on eggshells around people or else they’ll be turned because of you.”

“What-”

“And since you’re not Queen Bee anymore you can’t even help the people who get akumatized because of you! It must be really hard…Especially after the Queen Wasp incidents' ' Lilia sings at her as if Chloe was an insect dead on the pavement in front of her.

Chloe tries to speak, but just then the school bell cuts her off. The nurse comes back into the room. “Chloe, Sabrina, if that's all I’m afraid you’ll have to head back to class now.” She looks at Chloe and the kindness she may have held before is long gone. “Here’s a note to your teachers. Don’t use that hand for the rest of the day, and have Sabrina take notes for you.”

“Of course,” Sabrina says, taking the note for Chloe and leading her friend out of the room. “Thanks, madame!”

The door closes behind them, Lila looking at Chloe with an unreadable expression. Sabrina hands Chloe the note. “Don’t listen to her Chloe, Lila doesn’t know anything about the akuma. She’s been out of Paris for most of the school year so…”

“Yeah, you're right…” Chloe grabs the note and crumbles it in her hand. “Ridiculous….”

…

Ten minutes later an akuma wrapped in bandages and calling herself, “Night Nurse” bursts into the classroom. “All children must be kept safe!!” She screams and starts wrapping up Chloe’s classmates in bandages- turning them into more bandage slinging mummies. The class turns into chaos with kids screaming and trying to get away from their mummified friends.

Night Nurse turns to Chloe, her akumatized eyes filled with cold cynicism, “You, Chloe, need extra protection…” and shoots forth bandages at her.

“Watch out Chloe!!” Sabrina leaps in front of her taking the hit for Chloe. The force of bandages knocks her into Chloe and the two of them go flying across the desks. Chloe can hear Nigh Nurse’s laughter as she leaves and calls out something about getting Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous.

The rest of her classmates that weren’t mummified have already run out of the classroom, leaving Chloe to extricate herself from the mummified Sabrina herself. “Dammit Sabrina, get off me…” Chloe grunts, trying to push her off, only to hurt her injured fingers some more.

“...protect…” the Sabrina mummy groans. “..protect Chloe….”

As Chloe places the squirming Sabrina away from her and hides under the desk, she can’t help but wonder if she hurt her ribs too. Her chest feels tight. 

From her hiding place, she can see the large windows on the side of the classroom. Once in a while, she can see a blur of red and black spots swing past, bright and vibrant against the sky. Her heart does a little dance in her chest when she does, but she stamps it down. Her and Ladybug are done. She doesn’t care about Ladybug. She can play hero all she wants and ask every other kid in this class for help. Who cares.

It’s another twenty minutes and the Miraculous Ladybugs set everything back to how it should be. Sabrina is hugging her and saying how glad she is that she’s okay, all her classmates are back to normal and Ms. Bustier is trying to calm everyone down and finish the class. Just like any other day.

It’s strange though. Usually, after the miraculous ladybugs, everything is sent back to normal. Damaged buildings, injuries, turned over desks. But her chest still feels tight. Her fingers still hurt too of course, but Chloe counts her blessings that it doesn’t seem like anyone blames her for this akuma attack. 

…..

“Ladybug and Chat Noir have saved Paris once again….” Nadia Chamack drones on the tv Chloe turned on for background noise. Both her parents were too busy to see her when she got back, so Chloe couldn’t vent to them about how clumsy and cruel Dupain-Cheng was at school today (utterly ridiculous). So she decides to see if she can rescue her manicure at all before the call Jean-what's-his-face to bring her more ice.

Under her bed, she finds a small box filled to the brim with manicure supplies. She bought it on impulse a month ago after watching some videos on Instagram. When her mother saw it, she remarked how ridiculous it was for Chloe to do it herself when she could pay a professional to do it. So the box went under her bed and a manicure appointment became a permanent fixture in her schedule.

She finds canary yellow polish and a black detail pen on the very top, and a few doodles of bees on some scrap paper. An image of a bee with a disappointed face pops in her mind, so she crumbles the paper in her good hand and grabs a pink polish and some acetone.

The bandage comes off easily enough and honestly, should probably have been wrapped tighter. Her heart begins to pound as each layer of bandage comes off, revealing blue-black skin underneath. It wasn’t this bad earlier… When she hit it during the attack did she break it?? This was way worse than a broken nail!!

Despite how it looked, the bruised fingers didn’t feel as bad as they looked. Chloe had never broken a bone, but Sabrina had broken a toe once and said it was the most painful thing ever. Her fingers just ache a bit. She removed the bandage fully and found that her pointer and middle finger were completely blackened, with small stiff hairs poking out. The nails that should have been broken were also darkened and sharp. It didn’t look like skin, it looked like something out of a horror movie.

“What…?” With her good hand, Chloe pulls out her phone and searches for images of broken fingers- nothing matches. Fear washes over her as she drops her phone on the bed, eyes stinging with tears.

“JEAN-MARC!!!” She screams, knowing her butler will be there soon.

She looks at her blackened fingers as she waits, and gives them an experimental flex- they move just as they should, even if they look horrible. Sweat beads down her face. Jean-Marc knocks on her door and Chloe for some reason, hides her hand behind her back before he walks in.

Jean is out of breath, but he stands up straight and proper. “Yes, Mademoiselle?”

“I…” Chloe swallows, flexing her hand behind her back. Her mind races for an answer. What does she say?? Obviously she should just show Jena-Marc her hand! Something is seriously wrong! 

But she can’t, and she’s not sure why.

“I had a bad day at school today, Jean-Marc.” She blurts out the first thing that comes to mind, which is surprisingly close to the truth. “Could you get me some flowers?”

Jean looks surprised for a moment but quickly recovers. He’s already used to her strange requests and fluctuating moods. “But of course mademoiselle. Anything else?”

“Yeah.” she answers, “I want some gloves to wear tomorrow. I messed up my manicure.”

\---

She wears gloves to school for the next week, and while her hand doesn't hurt anymore it hasn’t gotten any better. In fact, she’s pretty sure the strange darkness is spreading to her other fingers and into her hand. She tries hard to not think about it, and she still doesn’t tell anyone. Just makes a fuss of Marinette Dupain-Cheng seriously breaking her nails and she’s lucky that gloves are so in right now. The gloves are pretty cute, with criss-cross ribbons along the hem (ribbons are the current trend according to Style Queen). So she decides to just roll with it. Like, if she just ignores it for long enough it won’t matter anymore. She can cover it up, so why bother?

“Now class, why don’t we partner up for the next activity?” Ms. Bustier calls out to the class- which immediately causes the class to fall into chaos as everyone races to find a partner. Chloe had remained seated and was planning to just stay with Sabrina until she notices Alya push Marinette towards Adrien. 

Definitely not!

Chloe leaps over her desk gracefully and lands next to Adrien, making sure to bat her eyes as affectionately as she can. “Oh, Adri-kins~ Why don’t you partner with me? It’s been so long~” She reaches out her hand to him, but as soon as she does he rips his hand away from her.

“Ow!’ he hisses holding his hand towards himself protectively.

“What happened?” Marinette snaps, glowering at Chloe as if she hurt him on purpose (ridiculous, of course).

“It’s nothing, I think Chloe just had some static electricity from her gloves.” Adrien looks over apologetically at her, “It just kinda stung is all.”

The air in the room seems to vanish. Chloe feels herself freeze, her mind going blank and the blood draining from her face. 

“Oh, sorry…” she manages.

“It’s fine,” Adrien says with his winning smile, meanwhile Marinette looks shocked behind him and mutters “Did she just apologize??”

“What were you saying before, Chloe?” Adrien prompts, his smile apologetic even as he winces in pain.

“Uhm,” Chloe hesitates, then turns back to her desk. “It’s nothing.”

\---

In her room at home, Jean-Louis has placed more flowers in her room as she requested. Alone, at last, she removes the gloves from her hands. The darkness has spread from her fingers onto her palm and her ring finger. Her nails became even sharper, and there's a small tear in at the tip of her gloves where they poked through. She falls back against her pillows and pulls out her phone. Of course, the thumbprint scanner isn’t working anymore, so she has to use her passcode.

Sabrina: Chloeeee!! I’m so glad we could work on our project together. Should I come over today?

Adri-kins: Hey, Chloe?

She lets the phone drop onto the covers. For once she doesn’t feel like answering back right away. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. The flowers smell amazing, sweet, and fresh. Idly, she grabs a long-stemmed yellow rose from the vase on her nightstand. The thorns weren’t properly stripped from it, but they can’t pierce the rough skin of her cursed hand. 

She brings the rose to her lips and bites it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, here it is!  
> I made up the Akuma in this chapter as well, idk if there's a real person named Estella Starr, but I really like the name.
> 
> Thank you for all your comments on the first chapter! I'm not going to make any promises on when the next chapter will be up, but I hope you enjoy this one, and sorry about the wait!

Friday night at last, and her mother is hosting a huge party at the hotel today. While her mother was in America, these parties had become incredibly rare, but with her recent decision to stay in Paris, she had decided that she was going to make an incredible comeback. Every inch of the hotel was filled with every kind of VIP imaginable from Jagged Stone to popular Youtube make-up artists. Chloe’s favorite nail-art Instagram influencer Estella Starr was here as well, and Chloe was simply dying to meet her.

Even the reclusive Gabriel Agreste was here! Well, okay, he was actually just streaming on an iPad that his assistant was carrying. But still! Nothing but the best for Audrey Bourgeois!

Even though Audrey was always too busy to pay any attention to Chloe on nights like these, Chloe _loved_ her mother’s parties. The hotel was so lively and filled with celebrities and delicious food. Not to mention Adrien was going to be there wearing a brand new signature Agreste suit.

For her part, Chloe was wearing the utmost _perfect_ dress in her favorite canary yellow. It had quite a few ruffles, so Chloe felt more like a princess than a queen today, but _Style Queen_ just had an article about how ruffles were making a comeback. It was a miracle Chloe could find some long black gloves that matched the same fabric as the dress. While her outfit wasn’t as grand as an _Agreste_ original she was certain it would get her mother’s approval.

By the time she went downstairs to the ballroom, the party was already in full swing. She spots Adrien looking uncomfortable over by the buffet. Gabriel’s assistant holding the tablet is next to him, and Chloe assumes Gabriel is talking to some of the important-looking people crowding around them. 

Although they aren’t as close as they used to be, Chloe’s known Adrien long enough that she can tell when the poor boy needs rescuing. He may look all proper and polite, but Chloe knows he really just wants to grab a bunch of buffet food and get away from the crowd. Chloe mentally shakes her head. One day that boy is going to get used to high society, but until then it’s Chloe to the rescue!

“Adrien, how good of you to come!” Chloe does a little curtsy for Adrien. Chloe sees an assistant whats-her-name glance her way for a moment before looking back at the people interviewing the tablet in her hands.

“Hey Chloe, nice party.” Adrien greets her. He looks at her outfit, and for a moment Chloe hopes he’s going to compliment her dress. Instead, he looks at her gloves and frowns. “Is your hand still hurt?”

“Oh pshhh” Chloe deflects, “Just a tiny bruise really. Besides these gloves really complete the whole outfit.” Adrien still seems iffy, so she changes the subject. “Adri-kins you shouldn’t be a wallflower over here, come make the rounds around the party with me.”

“Oh well…” Adrien looks nervously at the assistant next to him. She looks at Chloe again and then gives him a slight nod. 

“Very well. Do not leave the ballroom.” She tells him.

“Of course! I’ll take great care of him.” Chloe brags, and quickly grabs Adrien’s hand and drags him away from the group of adults. She leads him to the nearest buffet that’s out of sight of the assistant.

“Alright, Adri-kins have at it.” She spreads her arms wide as she presents him with the buffet piled high with food and chocolate fountains. “I know what you’re about.”

Adrien laughs, and honestly, it’s been a while since she’s heard him laugh like that when it’s just the two of them. “You know me too well, Chloe” He grabs a plate and starts loading up on food: sweets, savories, and a whole lotta cheese. They stay there and chat idly as Adrien slowly goes through trying everything on the buffet table. Really, Chloe wonders where the boy puts it all. 

Then Chloe spots her- Estella Starr!! In the corner with a few other social media influencers, Estella is sipping at a champagne flute nervously, her beautiful nails are painted in pastel rainbows, each individual nail adorned with meticulous crystals and swirling patterns.

“Adrien!” Chole nudges him and points over to Estella. “There she is!!”

Adrien, ever the gentleman, quickly swallows the chocolate covered strawberry he was eating. “Who’s she?”

“Estella Starr! She’s the biggest name in nail art right now! She’s like, totally my idol.” Chloe can’t help but gush a little.

Adrien grabs another strawberry and dips it into the chocolate fountain, careful not to get any chocolate on his suit. “You should go introduce yourself.”

“You’re so right, she’d love to meet me-” Chloe takes a step forward and then stops. She glances down at her long black gloves in disappointment. “I wanted to show her my nails but…”

“Chloe-” Adrien starts but is interrupted by the sound of Audrey screaming.

“I will not allow these fashion faux-pas in my grand return party!!” She huffs, pointing at various party guests, “That is _so_ not in right now!” She points at one guest after another. “You, out. You, stay. You especially get out!! Animal print are you serious? Ridiculous!”

Audrey makes her way through the guests, picking who to keep and toss by the sharp gaze of her critical, and fashion-forward eye. She quickly makes her way to the huddle of Instagram stars in the corner. Chloe feels a bead of sweat run down her temple as her mother moves closer to Estella Starr.

“And who, are you?” Audrey demands.

Before she can think Chole has run-up to her mother. She goes to place a hand on her arm but stops herself before she does. “Mom! This is Estella Starr, she’s the number one nail artist on the internet right now, even in Paris.” Audrey doesn’t seem particularly convinced, as she scrutinizes her with narrowed eyes. “You featured her in Style Queen in last month’s issue?” Chloe tries.

“Ah yes, I remember now,” Audrey says, her attention now focused on Estella’s hand holding the Champagne flute. “Is this...pastel?”

“Uhm…” Estella squeaks, “Yes?”

“Ridiculous!! Pastel is OUT. You dare show up to my party in such outdated colors?” Audrey fumes and Chloe can’t help but flinch back.

“I’m sorry-” Estella tries, but Audrey will have none of it.

“Chloe, tell this girl what you think of her ridiculous nails!” Audrey makes a shooting motion.

“Uhm,” Chloe freezes for just a moment, but her mother’s stare snaps her into attention. “R-Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous of course!” Chloe stamps her foot and crosses her arms. She looks away from Estella; not even designing her with attention. Chloe feels a chill run down her spine.

“Utterly ridiculous!” Audrey repeats, “Now get out! Shoo! Shoo!!”

Estella drops her glass and runs away in tears, the sound of breaking glass cutting above the chatter of the party around them. The spilled champagne spills on Audrey’s shoes making her even more agitated. She continues on her way kicking people out of the hotel.

Chloe doesn’t even have time to walk back over to Adrien before the akuma, StarStruck, attacks the building. Glass is shattered and party-goers are screaming, the colors drained from them along with their wills.

The akuma seems more preoccupied with Audrey than Chloe herself, at least until she spots her.

“Let’s see who’s ridiculous now!” She screeches, lunging at Chloe with her long sharp claws.

Chloe’s world spins and she finds herself being carried by Chat Noir away from the ballroom. “Hey, Chloe-” He starts, but Chloe interrupts him.

“No Chat noir, I don’t know where the akuma is. If I had to guess either her nails or her party invitation.”

“That wasn’t what I was going to ask you, but good to know.” Chat says placing her down in front of the door to her suite. Honestly, with the amount of Akuma fights Ladybug and Chat Noir have had in this hotel, she’s not surprised he knows where her room is.

“Chat noir!” Ladybug calls out, and Chloe turns around to see her running down the hallway towards them. Even with as many times as she’s seen her, the sight of Ladybug so near her makes Chloe’s breath catch in her throat.

Ladybug notices Chloe, and her crystal blue eyes turn hard. “Chloe, do you know what caused this Akuma? She seems pretty occupied with your family.”

Chloe finds herself scowling. “Obviously she got upset by something we said.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time something like this happened.” Ladybug mutters.

“My lady-” Chat says, but Chloe’s done.

“Whatever. I’ll lock myself in my room and stay out of your way.” Chloe opens her door, “Go play superhero by yourselves.” Chloe slams her door, locking it securely behind her.

She can’t hear them leave through the thick wooden door, but by the sounds outside they must have already rejoined the fight. Chloe finds herself sliding down and leaning against the door, wrinkling her new dress in the process. She fishes her phone out of the clutch bag on her wrist.

Taking off the stupidly long gloves is a pain, but her phone won’t work with them on. Idly she notices as she unlocks her phone, that the darkness has spread even further. It covers all her fingers and has crawled far up above her wrist. 

She scrolls over to the Instagram app and deletes it.

……

She’s surrounded herself with so many flowers that Jean-Marc has begun moving some to her rooftop secret base. She likes it so much that she starts requesting potted plants and not just cut flowers. The pretty smells and colors seem to calm her down. And she needs something to calm her down lately. 

Every day she feels filled with nervous energy. She’s tried keeping busy with homework, but she needs to _move._ She tried the treadmill, but the hotel gym almost always has other people in it and they give her gloves weird looks (should she order sports ones? Do they have those? Maybe for biking?). The treadmill barely helps anyway. It’s only when she sees all the new flowers in her room and can smell them does she feel calm.

She had noticed later that one of her gloves had a small tear on it and had jean marc order her some new ones. Both hands are blackened with tiny spines now. They work fine otherwise, and just to prove it to herself she’s formed that habit of sipping mint tea sweetened with honey out of an expensive teacup while out on her veranda surrounded by flowers. There’s not even a tremor. She’s just as graceful and beautiful as ever. Plus the tea is delicious.

Jean-Marc however, keeps bothering her.

“Mademoiselle, it is true that a young lady such as yourself should be surrounded by such pretty flowers,” Gracefully he refills her teacup, “But, why is it that you have insisted on having so many?”

“I don’t need a reason, Jean-marc'' She scoffs, and puts more honey in her tea. Jean-marc grimaces slightly at the amount of honey she’s putting in her tiny teacup, but refrains from chiding her about it.

“Of course, mademoiselle. But, “ Then Jean-marc does something he never has before. He kneels down to her eye level, with a hand over his heart. “If something is wrong... If something is happening at school or with your family, you can tell me. I’ll do whatever I can to help ” 

Jean-marc has never spoken to her like this. He has always had a differential tone or spoke to her as if she was a baby (which she hated.) But now, he was speaking to her as Miss Bustier did. As if Chloe was worth protecting and worth worrying about. She hates it. The plain _Concern_ in his eyes, his voice. It makes her feel horrible and yet she wants to tell him… but tell him what? That she’s turning into something she doesn’t like and doesn’t know what to do about it? Show him her messed up hands and say, “Hey John-what's-your-face, can you fix this without puking?”

Something in her seems to snap, and suddenly she can’t _breathe_ , her breath coming out in short unsteady bursts.

“Mademoiselle?” Jean-marc tries. And that's when Chloe notices that it wasn’t something inside her that snapped. It was the teacup, She cracked it in her hands.

“...Just go away.” Her head feels like it's buzzing, burning, Her eyes hurt.

“Let me get a dustpan for the shards-”

Chloe throws the rest of the cup and saucer on the ground with a satisfying _shatter_. “Just go away! I’m fine! How dare you talk to me like that!!”

Her eyes are burning so bad that she hears him instead of sees him leave, with the door to the rooftop shutting behind him with finality. A little voice buzzes in her head that he was only trying to help, and she tells it to shut up. She still doesn’t look up, her burning eyes buried in her stupid gloves, as she stays curled up on her deck chair. She doesn’t move even when she hears akuma sirens later.

She must have fallen asleep for a while because she wakes up in time to see the miraculous ladybugs scattering across the twilight Paris skyline. Her gloves are sticky from the spilled tea earlier, so she takes them off and reaches for the teapot. She has some missed calls from Sabrina but turns her phone off. 

The tea is long cold but it feels good on her parched throat, and she takes deep ungraceful chugs from it. There's a potted flower plant near her feet, and she plucks one of the coral-colored flowers from it. It almost looks like a rose, but the leaves on the plant look nothing like roses. She plucks a petal and places it in her mouth. It tastes sour.

She shoves a fistful of bitter petals in her mouth and swallows them down.

**Author's Note:**

> So I am super salty about Miracle Queen ngl.  
> I have the last 2 parts mostly finished, so I should be able to post them soon!


End file.
